Store-service apparatus.



F. D. POWELL.

STORE SERVICE APPARATUS APPLICATION FILED DEC. 26. 1918.

Patented Nov. 24. 1914.

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THE NORRIS PETERS cu. PHOTO-lJTHD-. WASHINQTDN. n. C.

P. D. POWELL. STORE SERVICE APPARATUS. APPLIOATION FILED DEC. 26. 1913.

Patented Nov. 24,1914.

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UNITED STATES PATENT ornion.

FRANK D. POWELL, OF BOSTON,'MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE LAMSON COM- PANY, 0F BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

STORE-SERVICE APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented NO 24:, 1914,

Application filed December 26, 1913. Serial No. 808,740.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK D. POWELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, in the county of Suflolk and. State 1 tions such as partitions, grilles, etc., or may rise to an upper floor and run at right angles to a station located at a considerable distance from the lower sending point. This type of apparatus will be found particularly useful in serving either up-stairs or basement departments from a central cash desk 10- cated either on the floor or upon a balcony.

A carrier transmitted over. the line wire or track may be powerfully propelled and is hence adapted to operate over lines of great length.

The foregoing and other objects of my invention will be hereinafter referred to and the novel combinations of elements whereby said objects may be attained will be more particularly set forth in the claims appended hereto.

In the drawings which form a part hereof and in which like reference characters designate like parts throughout the several views, I have exemplified a preferred form of the apparatus in question; but as I am aware that various changes and modifications may be made herein without departing from the spirit of my invention, I desire to be limited only by the scope of said claims.

Referring to the drawings: Figure lis a side elevation of an elevated cash carrier. Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the same. Fig.

3 is a top view of the elevating apparatus shown to the right in Fig. 1; drawn to a larger scale. Fig. 4 is a detail front elevation of the parts shown in Fig. 8, drawn to a still larger scale for clearness; the car beingshown in the act of passing around the curved track. Fig.5 is a detail end view of. the mechanism shown in Fig. .4.'

Fig. 6 isa .detailperspective view of a portion of the carrier elevating and propelling mechanism. Fig. 7 is a perspective view tion of the carrier elevating and propelling is a'top view of a part of the carrier projecting apparatus shown to the left in F ig.

1. Fig. dis a detail section, taken on line IX-IX of Fig. 1. Fig. 10 is a detail sec tion taken on line X-X of Fig. 4. Fig. 11 is a fragmentary perspective rear and back view of a portion of-the chaser shown in Fig. 6. FigLlQ is a detail section taken on line XIIXII of Fig. 4'and Fig. 13 is a similar section taken online XIII-QUIT of Fig. 4. j

The main track or wire 1 extends from a station broadly designated 2 to acurved track section 3; passingtogether with the latter, and connected thereto in the manner hereinafter described, around a curve of suitable radius, and thence downwardly as at 1 to a plate 4 to which it is secured in any proper manner; the plate 4. being disposed at a considerably lower level than the track 1 and being supported'upon uprights 5 or the like. In the present instance the track section 1 is shown as extending,

through an aperture 6 in a floor 7 intermediate the plate 4 and the track 1. curved track section 3 preferably consists of a strip of light. gage sheet metal8 which may be stiffened by an additional metal strip 9 of heavier gage but of somewhat less width;'bo th the strips 8 and 9 beingin turn riveted to a heavy arcuately curved bar 10, as shown in Fig. 10.

The projecting edge or bead 8' of the strip 8 is curled around the wire 1 and does not materially increase the thickness of the track at this pointjit being understood of course that this curled sheet metal edge provides the track surface at this point. It

is preferable to file down or otherwise re'- duce the respective extremities of the curled edge as at 11; to facilitate the passage of the carrier thereover. The curved track 3 is-preferably fastened at its lower extremity to a bar 12 which extends vertically upward and is fastened to a bracket 13; the latter in turn being pivotally or otherwise connected to a hanger 14 which may depend from a floor or other suitable support. The upper extremity of the curved track may be correspondingly connected to a tie 15 which in turn is preferably pivctally connected, as at 16, to the bracket 13. The tie 15 will be drawn by the tension of the wire track 1 into parallelism therewith and I prefer to unite the extremities of the curved track by a tie-rod 17, to prevent spreading or enlargement of the radius of curvature. Below the hanger and in alinement there -vith is a casing 18 the primary purpose of which will be hereinafter referred to, but which secondarily serves to strengthen the frame work of this portion of the projecting mechanism, since the upper extremity of this casing is rigidly connected to the bracket 13 and the lower extremity thereof is connected to a small bracket 18 through which the lower extremity of the tie-rod 17 may extend, as shown in Fig. 1.

lbove the wire 1 is a taut wire 19 which may conveniently be bent around an upper surface of the bracket 13 and thence downwardly as at 19 to the plate 4L It will thus be seen that a frame work for the carrier elevating and proiectinr; mechanism is provided; the wires 1 and 19 serving as guides for slide 20. This slide has pivotally connected thereto a rod 21; preferably square in cross section as indicated in Fig. 6. This rod extends into a spring casing 22 and has a small block mounted upon its upper ex tremity; which block is adapted to reciprocate in said casing. In the lower extremity of the casing is a guide block 2 1 which fits the rod 21 and thereby holds the casing 22 against rotation.

Intermediate the blocks 23 and 24 is ashort coil spring 25 which serves to break the recoil from the blow delivered by an incon1- ing carrier. Above the block 23 is a similar spring 26 which is placed under compression when carrier is being pro aelled outwardly around the curved track section, and which thereby relieves the strain upon the curved track which would tend to deform the same, unless made of unnecessarily heavy material, if the rod 21 were integral with the rod 27 which extends upwardly from the upper end of the casing and which is rigidly connected to the latter. The spring 26 also acts as a bumper spring for incoming carriers. The rod 27 has its upper extremity bent laterally as at 27 (see Figs. 6 and 11); this bent end being journaled in a carriage 28 which carries four small wheels 29. These latter are arranged in pairs and adapted to receive the head 8 of the curved track snugly therebetween while clearing the re mainder of the strip 8 in the same manner as do the wheels of the carrier, hereinafter referred to. I or convenience of construction the pairs of wheels 2-9 may be pivotally mounted upon Ushaped pins 30; the carriage 28 being preferably made of sheet netal. and having wings 28 upstanding from the body thereof and bent around to house the upper rollers or wheel's.

Particular attention is directed to the stop 31 shown in Fig. 11. as extending laterally from one side of the carriage; said stop being adapted to engage the rod 27 when the latter is in substantial parallelism with the track section 1. The object of this provision is to hold the carriage firmly when the chaser arm, consisting of rods 21 and 27 and the intermediate casing 22, is drawn down so that the car is mounted on said track section 1.

Forwardly extending from the resiective sides of the chaser carriage 1-8 are resilient metal strips which together with the forward end of said carriage provide a fork which receives a portion of the carriage 35 of the carrier, as indicated. in Figs. 1 and 4. The direct thrust against the carrier is sustained by a felt buffer 3%, or the like.

The slide 20 may be elevated by means of a cord 35 which is connected thereto as at 36 and which has therearound a closely coiled wire spring 37; which constitutes a slightly flexible thrust-rod, the lower extremity of which bears against slide 20 and the upper extremity of which normally engages a plunger 38 which is received within the casing 18 above referred to. In this casing is a light coiled spring 36 which is placed under compression when the thrust member 37 is pulled up into the interior of said casing.

The cord 35 emerges from the upper extremity of casing 1 1, as best shown in Fig. 5, and passes over idlers 39 and down to the pulley block 410. It then passes again upwardly around a pulley 41 and again down to the block 1-0, around the second pulley therein and finally up to the laterally extending arm 13 of the bracket 13 to which arm it is secured. It is evident, by reason of the tackle thus provided, that in the present instance a downward movement of the pulley block d0 through one foot will elevate the slide 20 four feet. The block 10 is preferably made sulliciently heavy to slightly more than compensate for the weight of the slide 20, the chaser and associated parts, so that normally the upper extremity of the flexible thrust rod 3? will bear lightly against the plunger 38. The latter, it will be noted, is provided with a head which prevents its emergence from the casing 18 so that when the slide 20 is urged downwardly toward plate 4- by the weight and momentum of the incoming carrier, the plunger remains in the position in which it is shown in Fig. 1-; it being understood that the weight of the carrier is sufficient to drive the slide 20 down into contact with the lenders 42 which are preferably mounted upon the respective wires 1 and 19'. Buffer springs 13 are provided below said buffers to break the fall of the carrier.

In order that an incoming carrier shall enter the fork of the chaser comparatively free from sidewise oscillatory movement, which it may acquire in transit, I prefer to provide guides 4a, which may be light rods bent as indicated in Fig. 3, and supported in yokes 4C5. These latter may be shaped as shown in Fig/12; one side being recessed for the reception of the outer side of the curved track and its stiffening elements, which carry the same, and the rods 14: hence being disposed below the level of the track proper, at this point, and upon either side thereof. The station at the upper level may be provided with carrier projecting mechanism of any suitable description; in the present instance said mechanism comprising a hanger d6 which carries a bracket 17 to which the track 1 is pivotally connected by a part 428; the taut wire 19 being similarly connected thereto by a pivotally mounted pulley block 19.

The propelling cord 50 extends upwardly from the handle 51 and is connected to a slidably mounted frame 52 the forward extremity of which is a plate 52, which carries pulleys 53 and a cord 51 which is looped back upon itself over the wire 1, in a known manner, and p asses upwardly back and forth around-pulleys 54 and those designated 55, which are mounted upon the inner side of a fixed frame 56 which is carried by rods 57 and the wire 19; the extremities of the cord 5% being secured to the plate 52. This station may be identical in construction with that disclosed in my pending application entitled Up-send wire line carrier, Serial No. $0 1,768, filed Dec. 4-, 1913, and so need not be herein further described, except to state that when the handle 51 is drawn down the carrier is projected from the position in which it is shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, toward the downward curve in the track.

The carrier, broadly designated 58, may have the usual spring pressed friction block 59 and wheels 6661, as described in my said application Serial No. 804,768; said wheels and block being mounted in a frame which is open on one side as at 62 to enable the carrier to ride around the curved track strip 8.

Assumin now that the carrier has been projected from station 2; the operation of the chaser and its associated parts is as follows: The carrier body 33 enters the forked chaser and impinges against the buffer 34: thereof. This drives the chaser carriage back downwardly around the curved track from the position which it normally occupies and in which it is shown in full lines in Fig. a and in dotted lines in Fig. 1. The

impact of the carrier against the chaser is further taken up by the spring 26 in the ing driven downwardly, the pulley blocktO.

was raised through a much shorter distance, and the passage of the cord 35 around its pulleys further served to check the momentum of the carrier. and insure its delivery at reduced speed at the lower-station.

The cash box or the like attached to the receptacle is removable therefrom in a known manner and after the operator at the lower station has made the required change or performed some like operation he re despatches the carrier to the upper station by pulling down upon the cord 63, being aided by the weight of the block 40. This elevates the slide 20 and the chaser arm urges the chaser with the carrier still seated in its fork up track section 1 and onto the curved track; the chaser arm thereafter swinging out of parallelism with track 1 until it reaches the position in which it is shown in Fig. 1. The momentum which the carrier has acquired during its upward movement causes it to leave the fork when the chaser has reached the limit of its upward travel, and by reason of the fact that it was continually and positively propelled during its travel around the curve, it may be causedto travel a long distance over track 1 to station 2, which it enters in a known fashion, retracting the loop of cord 54 and being frictionally brought to rest by the engagement of its block 59 with the usual friction piece or tube 6% on track 1, at said station. As the carrier passes around the curve, owing to the continued thrust of the chaser therebehind, thereis a tendency for the light curved track to be distorted or kinked; but the spring 26 in thechaser arm. again comes into action and by yielding relieves the thrust; the energy thus stored in said spring being, however, ultimately delivered, to the carrier ust as the chaser comes to rest. The light spring 36 in casing 18 is compressed by the upward thrust of the flexible pushrod 37 as the slide moves from the position in which it is shown in Fig. 4: to that in which it is shown in Fig. 1 or slightly therebeyond, so that said spring is enabled to drive the slide downwardly against the action of the weight 40, when the cord 63 is released, until the head of the block 38 engages the lower extremity of casing 18. This disposes the chaser in position to receive the carrier upon its return from the upper station. Y The upwardmovement of the chaser may be limited by the engagement of slide 20 with casing 18, or in any other suitable manner.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is:

1. A store service apparatus comprising a track having therein a curve, a carrier adapted to travel on said track, and means to thrust said carrier around said curve, said means adapted to follow said carrier around a part at least of said curve and having provisions for reducing the shock of said thrust which is exerted against the curved portion of said track.

2. A store service apparatus comprising a track having therein a curve, a carrier adapted to travel on said track, and means to thrust said carrier around said curve, said means adapted to follow said carrier around a part at least of said curve and including a yielding connection for reducing the shock of said thrust which is exerted against the curved portion of said track.

3. In store service apparatus, a track having an ascending portion, a curved portion and a portion extending from said curved portion at an angle to said ascending portion, a carrier adapted to travel along said track, a chaser adapted for engagement with said carrier for propelling the latter around the curved portion of the track, a chaser arm, means for elevating the lower end of said arm, the other end of said arm being movable there by around a part at least of the curved pen tion of the track, and means for normally returning said chaser and arm to determined positions.

4-. In store service apparatus, a track having an ascending portion, a curved portion and a portion extending from said curved portion at angle to said ascending portion, a carrier adapted to travel along said track, a chaser adapted for engagement with said carrier for propelling the latter around the curved portion of the track, a chaser arm, and means for elevating the low r end of said arm, the other end of said arm being movable thereby around a part at least of the curved portion of the track.

5. ln store service apparatus, a tracl: having an ascending portion, a curved portion and a portion extending from said curved portion at an angle to said ascending portion, a carrier adapted to travel along said track, a chaser adapted for engagement with said carrier for propelling the latter around the curved portion of the track, a chaser arm. and means for elevating the lower end of said arm, the other end of said arm being movable thereby around a part at least of the curved portion. of the track, said chaser arm having a yielding connection therein.

3. A store service apparatus comprising two stations, a track between said stations 1,11s,oas

having therein a curve, a carrier adapted to travel along said track, means to propel said carrier from one 01" said stations around a portion at least of said curve and to there after project said carrier along the track to the other of said stations, said means including a chaser which normally remains in contact with the carrier while the latter is traversing at least the greater part of said curve, and means for normally returning said chaser to a determined position.

7. A store service apparatus comprising two stations, a track between said stations having therein a curve, a carrier adapted to travel. along said track, means to propel said carrier from one of said stations around a portion at least of said curve and thereafter project said carrier along the track to the other of said stations, said means including a chaser which. normally remains in contact with. the carrier while the latter is traversing at least a part of said curve, and means for normally returning said chaser to a determined position on said curve preparatory to the reception or the carrier when the latter is re-despatched theretoward.

8. In a store service apparatus, a track having therein a curve, a station at each end of said track, a carrier, and means at each station for projecting said carrier along said track toward the other station, the said means at one station including a chaser adapted to follow said carrier around a portion at least of said curve, said carrier heing thereafter movable along said track away from said chaser.

9. In a store service apparatus, a track having therein a curve, a station at each end of said track, a carrier, means at each station for projecting said carier along said track toward the other station, the said means at one station including a chaser adapted to follow said carrier around a portion at least of said curve, said carrier being thereafter movable along said track away from said chaser, and means for positioning said chaser to receive said carrier when it is projected theretoward by the projecting means at the other station.

10. Store service apparatus comprising a way having a station at one end thereof, a descending portion adjacent said station and a curved portionleading downward to said descending portion, a carrier to travel along said. way, and means normally on said curved portion, when said carrier is traveling toward said station, to receive the impact of said. carrier and to descend therewith around said curve toward said station.

11. Store service appar tus comprising a way having a station at one end thereof, a rilescending portion adjacent said station and a curved portion leading downward to said descending portion, a carrier to travel along said way, and means normally on said curved portion, when said carrier is traveling toward said station, to receive the impact of said carrier and to automatically descend therewith around said curve toward said station.

12. Store service apparatus comprising a way having a station, a carrier on wheels adapted to travel along said way, and a carriage to normally receive said carrier while en route toward said station and to travel along therewith to said station, said carriage also having wheels adapted for engagement with said way.

13. Store service apparatus comprising a way having a curve therein, a carriage to travel along a limited extent of said way which includes a portion at least of said curve, a carrier adapted to be propelled-by said carriage along said way, and means for propelling said carriage.

1%. Store service apparatus comprising a way having a curve therein, a carriage mounted on wheels to travel along a limited extent of said way which includes a portion at least of said curve, a carrier adapted to be propelled by said carriage along said way, and means for propelling said carriage.

15. Store service apparatus comprising a way having a curve therein, a carriage to travel along a limited extent of said way which includes a portion at least of said curve, a carrier adapted to be propelled by said carriage along said way, means for propelling said carriage, and means for retracting said carriage thereafter to a determined position.

16. Wire line store service apparatus comprising a way, having a substantially vertical portion, a laterally extended portion and a curved portion between the portions aforesaid, a carrier to travel along at least said lateral and curved portions of said way, a carriage having attached thereto an arm for thrusting said carriage and thereby said carrier around said curved portion, a slide to travel on said vertical portion, said arm being operatively connected to said slide, and means for elevating said slide.

17. Store service apparatus comprising a carrier, a substantially vertical guide part, a

laterally extended guide part along which said carrier travels, and a curved guide part, a carriage to travel on said curved and substantially vertical guide parts, an arm connected to said carriage and adapted to thrust the latter around said curved part, means to support said arm, movable up and down on said substantially vertical guide part, and means for raising said supporting means and thereby said arm and carriage.

18. Store service apparatus comprising a carrier, a substantially vertical guide part, a laterally extended guide part along which said carrier travels, and a curved guide part, a carriage to travel on said curved and substantially vertical guide parts, an arm pivotally connected to said carriage and adapted to thrust the latter around said curved part, means to support said arm, movable up and down on said substantially vertical guide part, and means for raising saidsupporting means and thereby said arm and carriage.

19. A store service apparatus comprising a track having therein a curve and a substantially vertical portion leading up to said curve, a carrier to travel on said track, and means, independent of the carrier, tothrust said carrier up said vertical portion and to continue to thrust it around the greater portion at least of said curve.

20. A store service apparatus comprising a track having therein a curve, a carrier to travel along said track, and means, normally on said curve when said carrier is traveling theretoward to receive said carrier and thereafter travel along therewith.

21. A store service apparatus comprising a track having therein a curve, a carrier to travel along said track, means, normally on said curve, to receive said carrier and thereafter travel along therewith, and guiding means to steady said carrier as it approaches said receiving means.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature, in the presence of two witnesses.

FRANK D. POWELL.

' Witnesses:

ISAAC Knarsos, ETHEL M. JORDAN.

Copies 0! this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D G. 

